dulcet
by Ju5t An0th3r H3d63h06
Summary: Once upon a time, a boy played a piano and a girl listened in wonder. AU, littlekid!verse, Oldrival. Status pending, may expand upon request. Cover credit: KittyKatLovesBooks.


**A/N: Posting this before my hiatus, mainly because I'm sick of it sitting around on my flash drive. Not really sure what genre it falls under. Comments, constructive criticism, and flames accepted. (No lame jokes about what they'll be used to toast, though.)**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Pokemon, I wouldn't have just sprinted across my house to find my DSi so that my Berries in Pokemon Platinum wouldn't wilt and die because of game time.**

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**Dulcet**

Leaf Green scuffs worn sneakers against the concrete sidewalk, a pout forming on her otherwise cheerful features. "Mommy, do we have to be here?" she asks, tugging at her mother's jeans.

Delia looks down at her fidgeting daughter with a wry grin. "Don't worry, Leaf. It'll only be a little longer."

"But this line is so looooong!" says Leaf, eyes wide and arms stretched out to show just how long. "Is it going to be fun?"

Leaf's mother smiles. "You'll have to wait and see."

The line moves into the theater, and Leaf is swept along by the crowd. She clutches Delia's hand tighter. Her mother shows two tickets to the guards, and one of them tells Leaf sternly that she has to go "THROUGH the turnstile, not under it, young lady." Leaf doesn't know what a "turnstile" is (or why the tall guard is glaring at her) but she ducks back under the spinny metal thing and pushes the bar forward.

Just when Leaf thinks she's going to fall asleep (because the hall is taking for ever and ever to walk down) the auditorium doors open. And then they're inside, and Leaf's eyes go wide. The concert hall is huge. It's huger than huge. It's...what's huger than huge? She doesn't know, but whatever it is, it's that. The seats unfold, too, and she almost falls into one. Delia tells her that she has to be extremely quiet during the performance, but Leaf is only half listening (because there's a piano in the middle of the stage. It's so shiny...)

A boy walks out into the center of the stage. Leaf guesses he's about her age, maybe a little older. His hair is sort of spiky. Bedhead, thinks Leaf, giggling slightly. She is shushed by someone. (Five someones. She counts while giving them her best six-year-old death glare.)

The lights dim. Leaf fidgets in her seat.

And then the boy on the stage puts his fingers to the piano, and Leaf doesn't dare look away or move or blink because she doesn't want to miss a single note. She closes her eyes and listens in awe as the music swirls around her, trying to describe it. It makes her happy and sad at the same time (which in turn makes her wonder how that's possible, and while she wonders and listens the music's over and people are standing up and leaving including her mom who is suddenly gone.)

Leaf panics.

No one pays much attention to the lost little girl with brown hair. They all have other places to go (maybe a fancy dinner or another performance or to the mall or...) but all Leaf can think at the moment is that she doesn't know where her mommy is plus this auditorium is kind of scary with nobody inside. She stands in the middle of the aisle, tears pooling in the corners of her brown eyes.

Then she hears the voice.

"Why are you crying?"

Leaf swipes at her eyes and turns around, defiantly facing whoever's talking to her. "I am NOT crying! Crying is for babies!"

The boy with the spiky hair raises an eyebrow. "You look like you're crying."

"I'm n-not crying!" insists Leaf, glaring at him. Then she stops. "Wait...I know you!"

"No you don't." The boy quickly turns away, about to leave.

"Uh-huh! You were on the stage!" Leaf says happily, all trace of her tears vanishing. "You were really good. Can I see you play?"

"No." The boy is halfway down the aisle.

Leaf follows him. "Did you know? If you get lost, you're supposed to stay in one place. I have to stay here 'cause I don't want to get even more lost. So can I sit here and listen? Pleeeeease?"

The boy sighs, walking down the steps with Leaf still following him. "Fi-i-ine. I'll play. But you can't laugh, okay?"

"Yay!" cheers Leaf with a grin. Her voice bounces around the deserted performance hall, and she stops, eyes wide. "Whoa, cool! This place echoes! ECHO!" she yells, and hears her voice bounce back to her. "Echo—echo—echo..."

The boy is staring at her with a confused look on his face. "What are you doing?"

Leaf pokes two fingers together and stares awkwardly down at her sneakers. "Echoing," she mumbles in a small voice.

"Um, okay. Whatever." The boy gives her a strange look and turns to the piano that seems way too big for him. He sits on the bench, and Leaf stands there awkwardly until he pats the seat next to him. "Well? Sit."

"O-okay!" Leaf runs to join him and sits down on the shiny black bench. (She knows what it's called, somewhere. Onix? No, that's a Pokémon...) The piano looks pretty, even under the dimmed spotlight, and the black-and-white keys remind her of chocolate, for some reason. The boy ignores the sheet music, swatting it aside like a fly, and Leaf leans in, curious as to what he's going to do without it.

And then, once again, the boy puts his fingers to the keys and Leaf suddenly forgets how to breathe. She listens to the notes and watches how his fingers dance across the keys like Surskit skimming over water. Leaf decides almost instantly that this one is better than anything she's heard so far. It makes her feel kind of lonely, and she puts her knees to her chest and watches the boy with something like wonder.

The music trails off. Leaf cocks her head for an explanation.

"I...haven't really gotten the rest of it to work yet," mumbles the boy, turning a shade darker than his usual tan.

Leaf grins. "It doesn't matter! It's..." She tries to describe the melody—she'll later learn the word 'melancholy' and yell it out in the middle of her fifth grade class, scaring everyone and earning her many weird looks—but comes up with "...pretty."

There is silence, filled by several notes. Leaf has decided that the piano looks fun and is tapping random keys.

"Play that again," demands the boy.

"Say please," retorts Leaf.

"...Please." says the boy grudgingly, and Leaf happily plays back the accidental melody, adding a few extra notes for good measure.

"I think I got it..." The boy starts to play the piano again, and Leaf joins in with the handful of notes she's picked up. The music sounds different, but at the same time she can pick out the original melody. Delighted, she switches around a few notes in her head and her fingers fly across more of the keys, she's having so much fun and it's like the piano was built just for her, even though it's so big and she missed a few notes back there, but that's okay, he's playing the other keys—

"Leaf?"

—she hears her mom's voice and the music grinds to a halt.

"I…I gotta go. My mommy's looking for me," says Leaf in a rush. Quickly, she hugs the boy and dashes off up the aisle, yelling behind her, "Thanks for everything!" In the empty hall, the yell carries clearly, bouncing off the walls.

"Leaf? Leaf, honey, where are you?"

Leaf and her mom meet halfway up the aisle. Her mom hugs her super tight, then glares. "Don't disappear like that on me."

"But mommy, YOU disappeared on me!" protests Leaf. Delia suddenly finds it harder to keep the frown on her face. Leaf doesn't notice and continues, "I stayed in one spot like you told me. 'Sides, I wasn't alone. I was on the stage with-"

She turns around, but the boy is gone.

"Wh-where'd he go?"

Delia sighs, allowing a small grin to slip through at her daughter as she takes Leaf's hand. "I think you've had more than enough excitement for one night, little lady. We're going home."

"Okay..." Leaf glances back at the empty stage as her mom leads her out of the auditorium. _I don't even know his name..._

That night, on the car ride home, she decides she wants a keyboard.

~fin


End file.
